Nice Until Proven Naughty

For no apparent reason, my thoughts turn to Dani, as they have a dozen or so times over the last hour. I glance up and catch her eye from across the room. Her hand is frozen midair. I smile at the same time her eyes shift to my phone and then the woman sitting next to me.

Shit. Lesley looks way too cozy, and I can only imagine what’s running through Dani’s head.

I smile again, hoping she’ll look up and see that I only have eyes for her. Lesley is a beautiful woman—sophisticated, smart, funny—but she doesn’t hold a candle to Dani, who currently looks like she either wants to murder someone or throw up.

I’m about to make my way over there and put an end to this whole charade when the band starts up with a slow rendition of a John Legend song, causing Lesley to squeal.

“I love this song. Dance with me?” She pulls me onto the floor, wraps her arms around my neck, and presses her body against mine.

Not wanting Dani to think anything else is going on, I take a small step back.

The first song fades into a second and third, and by the time I know it, Lesley and I have been on the dance floor for over an hour, laughing and carrying on. Our conversation has moved at a steady pace, shifting from subject to subject. She hasn’t revealed any weird fetishes; there have been no awkward pauses. We get along great, and if I were any other guy, I’d ask her out on a second date.

But I’m not any other guy, and my heart is already taken by a feisty brunette who is currently being twirled around the dance floor by our head cook, Ethan.

My feet stop moving as I watch the way her hand rests against his shoulder and her beautiful lips as they smile up at him. If what I’m feeling right now is even a fraction of the pain she probably felt the entire hour I’ve been dancing with Lesley, I’m a complete asshole with a lot of explaining and making up to do. Because this sucks. Watching her with another guy—even if it is Ethan, who I know would never betray me—absolutely sucks.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head and try to pull my eyes from Dani to Lesley, but I can’t. Ethan spins her out before pulling her back and when he dips her, her long dark hair skimming the floor, she laughs.

God, I love her laugh. It’s the best sound in the whole world. Deep and throaty, it comes straight from her belly and hits me at the core.

“It was her, wasn’t it?”

“Huh?” I mumble, finally pulling my gaze back to Lesley.

“It was her—she was the other one bidding on you.”

I nod.

“And she’s the one who you’d rather be here with?”

“Lesley, I—”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to explain. The heart wants what the heart wants. She’s a lucky girl.”

“I like to think that when I finally get the girl, I’ll be the lucky one.”

“What do you mean, finally?”

“We’ve been playing a mean game of cat and mouse. We’ve been trying to talk for the last few days, but we keep getting interrupted. It’s almost like the universe doesn’t want us to be together.”

“Or, maybe the universe wants the moment you do come together to be perfect.”

“Maybe.” I smile at the woman in front of me. “I’m glad I got the chance to meet you.”

“Me too.” She smiles back at me. “Now I can say I have a friend in town.”

“Definitely.”

“Maybe two friends, if Dani doesn’t want to kill me after this.”

I laugh and shake my head. “That’s not the type of woman Dani is. I have a feeling you two could end up being really good friends.”

We stop swaying side to side, and Lesley’s arms drops from my shoulders. “You should go get her.”

“Really?”